The ultimate guide on how to create a messaging framework for your business

You’ve managed to firm up your ICP and everyone in the business is aligned on what that looks like. Sales know who they’re going to be going after, product know who they’re building features for and marketing knows who they are targeting in promotion.

So, what’s next?

You can’t just go off with: “good morning, would you like to buy our product, it’s really very good”. If only it was that easy.

So, well, yes, the next step is figuring out what you’re going to say to your prospects.

Maybe you’ve moved forward into a new target audience with all of your ICP work or perhaps it’s shifted slightly. You could have even gone through a whole exercise where the outcome is that you are targeting the right buyer but through the wrong channels or positioning.

This means that your core messaging will need updating in order to align with your new or updated buyer persona.

What you need is: A messaging framework

What is a messaging framework?

A messaging framework takes everything you’ve put together in your ICP research - pain points, solutions, outcomes - the what, why and how.

It’s one of the core pillars of early stage marketing, in terms of solidifying your market position and displaying who you are, what you do and who you’re for. By putting together a messaging matrix you’re planning how you’re going to speak to your audience and becoming aligned on what is being said throughout your company.

Because there’s nothing worse than speaking to a business and getting three wildly different pitches on what it is that you do and all of that being different to what is being displayed on the website and through socials.

It helps you to be consistent and effective with communication when building your brand and enables your business to be clear, efficient and targeted in your approach.

What should be included in a messaging framework?

In building a messaging framework, it enables you to start to crafting your most important messaging structures, including:

• Your elevator pitch: Customer pain point + your understanding + your solution in 20 seconds

• Your positioning statement: For [ICP], [Product] provides a way to [solve their pain point], so that they [can get key benefit]

• Your mission statement: Our mission is to [the core reason your company exists]

• Your value proposition: We help [ICP] do [outcome of solving pain point] by doing [key feature]

Let’s a take a look at each of these core components more closely.

Your elevator pitch

An elevator pitch is a short statement, which consists of a couple of sentences, which explains clearly to your customer what your product does. Ideally this statement should take less than 20 seconds to read or deliver.

The history of this is that the person you’re speaking with can understand your description in a short elevator (or lift) ride.

While sales will be the team that uses this the most, the whole company has to be on board with it as it’s useful for events, for networking and also to bring it all back to the core of what it is that you do.

So, you have to solve the Customer pain point + your understanding + your solution in 20 seconds equation.

An example for the newly-generated-in-my-mind-this-moment firm, BrambleWorks:

“BrambleWorks helps remote-first product teams cut meeting time in half by turning Slack threads into structured project updates, automatically. No new tools, no extra admin. Just cleaner communication and happier PMs. If your team spends more time talking about work than doing it, we should chat.”

Once yours has been put together and agreed, randomly test people across the business on what it is that you do every so often just to keep them on their toes.

Your Positioning Statement

A positioning statement is a short, strategic summary that explains what your business offers, who it’s for, and how it’s different or better than the alternatives. It acts as the foundation for your brand messaging and marketing efforts.

Although what it sounds like I’m getting you to put together here is very much like an elevator pitch, there are some key differences, in that it’s an internal statement and not designed to be customer-facing. It additionally:

• Defines your brand’s core identity in the market.

• Guides your team, leadership, investors, agencies.

• Is used for messaging, aligning teams, shaping campaigns.

• Forces you to define your audience, offer, and differentiation in one place.

• Helps you avoid trying to be everything to everyone.

• Positions you clearly in your market, so your customers choose you

  
  

How can you bring [ICP], [Product] provides a way to [solve their pain point], so that they [can get key benefit] to life?

Here’s some example based on those that we used for the fictitious BrambleWorks:

“For remote-first product teams, BrambleWorks is the internal communication partner that transforms scattered Slack threads into structured project updates, because it integrates seamlessly with existing tools to reduce meeting load and improve clarity without adding new workflows.”

Your mission statement

So, this always reminds me of Mission Impossible and the “your mission if you choose to accept it…” line.

Absolutely nothing to do with that, just a little insight into how my brain works.

A mission statement is a concise explanation of a company’s purpose - why it exists, what it does, and who it serves. It’s often outward-facing and emotionally resonant, used to inspire and align both internal teams and external audiences.

A mission statement is a short statement and typically answers the following three questions:

• What do we do?

• Who do we do it for?

• Why does it matter?

  
  

Using Our mission is to [the core reason your company exists] applied to BrambleWorks we get:

“To help remote teams communicate with clarity, not chaos by turning everyday conversations into meaningful progress”

Some real world examples of mission statements include:

Patagonia: We're in business to save our home planet.

Slack: To make people's working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.

Mailchimp: To empower the underdog. We help small businesses grow.

Your value proposition

A value proposition is a short statement of the benefits a company provides to its customer buying their product. It’s a short, easy to understand line of text that should make you target audience realise straight away that it’s for them.

It also serves as intent for what you deliver to your core market.

A value proposition works best when it’s clear and concise, focused on customer benefits and explains why it’s different.

Applying We help [ICP] do [outcome of solving pain point] by doing [key feature] to BrambleWorks we get:

“BrambleWorks helps remote-first product teams save time and reduce meeting overload by turning Slack threads into structured, shareable project updates with no new tools or workflows required.”

And a real world example includes:

Hubspot: Free CRM Software That Grows With Your Business.

Applying your messaging framework to your business

The next step in all of this is then to start creating the messaging for the channels that you use across the business - how can we apply this to the website, the social channels and the way that we present ourselves at events.

I’ll be writing about that next time.

In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments on getting your messaging framework together.